DEA STRAPS ON MACHINE GUNS AGENCY 'TIRED OF BURYING ITS AGENTS'

Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Florida are about to begin carrying submachine guns, giving its street agents the heaviest firepower of any law enforcement officers in the United States.

"DEA as well as other law enforcement agencies have been outgunned for 10 years," said DEA agent Jack W. Hook. "The reason we're doing this is five DEA agents have been killed in the past 14 months, four by gunfire. DEA is getting sick and tired of burying its agents."

Florida agents will get the submachine guns first because this area is considered the most dangerous. Of 31 automatic weapons taken in drug raids nationwide between October and January, 11 were in South Florida.

"The criminals have been laughing at us for years," Hook said. "Once we get the word out that we have submachine guns, the laughing will stop."

On Wednesday, DEA agents demonstrated the 9mm Colt submachine gun at a Miami gun range. Agents in its 11 Florida offices -- including Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach -- will get the weapons first.

A limited number of agents already use the gun in Florida. It will replace the five-shot shotgun and six-shot .38 caliber revolver agents now use.

Within a year, 3,000 DEA agents will be authorized to carry the weapon, which has been modified by Colt to fire a maximum of three bullets with one squeeze of the trigger. The gun is often compared to the M-16 submachine gun widely used in the Vietnam War, but its bullets do not have the penetration of the M- 16's.

DEA's efforts to upgrade its arsenal mirrors a law enforcement trend in South Florida and nationwide as other federal agents, police officers, sheriff's deputies and troopers are finding themselves outgunned.

"In South Florida we don't even see the Saturday Night Special any more," said Bruce Synder, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, which has recently started using semi-automatics. "We're all trying to combat the rising power that the bad guys have."

In the past several years, Fort Lauderdale police and sheriff's deputies in Broward and Palm Beach counties have been allowed to replace revolvers with semi-automatic weapons. This summer, some Florida Highway Patrol troopers will begin using semi-automatics.

The change should be no surprise, Broward sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedal said. "The bad guys have been using them all along."

The semi-automatic gun is faster, more accurate, can hold more amunition, and often gives police a greater sense of safety, police officers said.

"That's the trend, but that's not necessarily saying the police are looking to throw more lead into the air," said Ernie O'Boyle, police specialist for National Institute of Justice in Washington, D.C.

"It's just that it's no longer a game of hide-and-seek with criminals anymore because some of these people are butchers," Boyle said.

Submachine guns are sometimes used by special police units, such as SWAT teams. The FBI still depends on the Smith and Wesson revolver but issues semi- automatic and automatic weapons for especially dangerous circumstances. Secret Service agents carry automatic weapons when protecting political figures.

Ben Smith, range master for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, said that more officers are turning to the 9mm semi-automatic pistol or the .44-caliber semi-automatic pistol because "the officers feel more comfortable having more rounds."

Hook would not give the cost of the new gun, called the Colt SMG. It can hold 32 bullets and differs from most submachine guns because three rounds are released with a single squeeze rather than the weapon being fully emptied if constant pressure is applied to the trigger. DEA said it ordered the modifications to protect bystanders from being hit by the spray of bullets during shootouts.

DEA also will issue agents a 9mm semi-automatic handgun that can hold 15 bullets.

In Florida, 12 DEA agents who are protecting witnesses in the cocaine- smuggling trial of Carlos Lehder Rivas in Jacksonville already are toting the submachine guns.

NEW FIREPOWER

The Colt 9mm Submachine Gun is known for its light weight and low recoil.

-- POWER: One trigger pull releases three bullets in succession. The magazine can hold 32 bullets. A simple adjustment can convert the gun to a fully automatic weapon, making it possible to empty the entire clip with one trigger pull.